National Parks Traveler

A program at Southern Utah University just might be cultivating the next generation of national park advocates and stewards. Or those for the national forests or other public lands.

The $11.9 billion maintenance backlog cited by the National Park Service inflates the true cost of high-priority infrastructure needs and elevates the risk for privatization and corporate giveaways in America’s parks, according to a report by an independent, nonpartisan policy institute.

David Hurst Thomas had planned to personally carry the "Pueblo Bonito Frog" from its safe storage at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City to Chaco Culture National Historical Park in a remote and dusty corner of New Mexico as the hallmark of a world-class exhibit of Chaco Culture artifacts. But as problems continue to plague the park's new museum, the exhibit has been put off indefinitely and the frog is remaining in hibernation.

On February 3, Fire Island National Seashore Superintendent Chris Soller and Fire Island Lighthouse Preservation Society President Bob LaRosa signed a new five-year partnership agreement. The agreement renews the Society's commitment to work collaboratively with the National Park Service to provide public programming and assist with preservation efforts at the lighthouse.

National Parks Conservation Association officials say a water permit for an oil refinery proposed to be built near Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota seeks four times as much water as the company's initial proposal.

Planning for rehabilitation of the crumbling Arlington Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C., has been completed by the National Park Service, though the agency is far short of the $250 million estimated to pay for the work.

Despite being one of the snowiest winters in recent years, someone headed into Crater Lake National Park in Oregon and broke into a locked building to steal thousands of rounds of ammunition, according to the National Park Service.

Those hoof beats audible in Banff National Park in Canada are from bison, a charismatic animal that long has been missing from the park's ecosystem.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming is developing an environmental assessment to address wildlife hazard mitigation and greater sage-grouse habitat restoration in and around the Jackson Hole Airport in the park. Public comments regarding the document are encouraged and requested by March 8.